Life & Faith

Busy Bodies: the gifts and curses of the evangelicals

John Stackhouse explores evangelicalism’s contribution to the world.  
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In this conversation John Stackhouse explains who the evangelicals are in history and who they are today. What are they like? What do they believe? What makes them so busy and active in the world? 
While lamenting some of the more regrettable failures of the tradition he belongs to, Stackhouse gives a convincing account of the contribution of evangelicalism in making the world a fairer, more compassionate and just place.
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Explore:
John Stackhouse's new book with Oxford University Press, Evangelicalism: A very short introduction

The Dream (and Nightmare) of Technology

Andy Crouch has some questions about your relationship with your devices 
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Are you ever troubled by the way technology impacts our lives?
Andy Crouch loves technology, but he is concerned that we use it wisely. What are the ways modern technology might diminish our humanity and how might it help us to flourish?
In this episode of Life & Faith Andy talks about the difference between devices and instruments and it’s a distinction that might help change your life in positive directions. There is some wisdom here to help us be more deliberate and intentional about how our technology might serve us rather than enslave us.  
For many of us with a nagging sense of unease about our relationship with our phones and tablets, Crouch offers some hope and a way forward that is life-giving and uplifting.    
“I think technology is not helping us be what we actually maybe are meant to be, which is people who live with fullness of heart, soul, mind and strength.” 
“I love talking about this because it activates a sense of hope. I think we sometimes feel a little out of control in this technological world. And what I hear back when I describe this transition from devices to instruments is people actually feel very empowered to take charge of how they use their device.”
 
Andy’s latest book is: The life we’re looking for: Reclaiming relationship in a technological world 
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Explore some of Andy’s other books
The Tech-Wise family  
My Tech-Wise life 
Culture making 

Caring for the Queen

Theologian John Swinton was Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland. He spoke to Life & Faith on the day she died.  
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John Swinton has been many things in his life: Mental Health Nurse, Presbyterian minister, academic and author. He was also Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland, a role his mother was especially proud of! On the morning he was due to come into the CPX studio news came through that Queen Elizabeth II had died.  
We talked about the Queen, her faith, and the role of Chaplain, that John briefly played. What made the death of this 96-year-old woman so profound for so many people? 
This topic led to a broader discussion about the caring professions, and spiritual care as a crucial part of any wholistic approach to true health.  
“... the way you learn how to be a decent person is by looking at decent people. And she always strikes me as a decent person that I have learned a lot from, even though … from a distance until relatively recently.”  
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Explore some of John Swinton’s books: 
 Dementia: Living in the Memories of God. 
A Graceful Embrace: Theological Reflections on Adopting Children 
Finding Jesus in the Storm: The Spiritual Lives of Christians with Mental Health Challenges 

Domestic Violence: An Afterstory

What does it look like not only to survive, but to thrive after trauma?  
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“Banksias, if you can imagine, they’ve got this woody core, with those eyes dotted around the core. So those eyes contain the seeds of the banksia tree, and these seeds – these pods – open up after the ashy heat intensity of a bushfire. So we really loved this metaphor because it represents our hopes for survivors who’ve experienced something incredibly painful and traumatic – like a bushfire can be – without minimising the severity of that incident, but also capturing the possibility for new life and beauty and hope.” 
Banksia Women is a domestic violence support service affiliated with St John’s Anglican Church Darlinghurst, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. It was born just as Covid was kicking off – which complicated what they do, but certainly hasn’t held them back.  
In this episode of Life & Faith, manager Keely Oste explains what it means for women to heal and even flourish after surviving domestic abuse. She talks about the needs, courage, and triumphs of the women she works with – and Shradha, who joined Banksia Women in January 2021, opens up about how it’s made such a difference to her, and to others. 
“The first basic thing was: I’m not alone in this. I think that was the biggest thing that helped me to not feel ashamed about the situation because it was not my fault, and I was not the only one - there were a group of women who were of different ages, of different ethnicities, of diverse backgrounds. And it still gives me goose bumps to see that so many beautiful women, so many educated women, so many middle-aged women and pretty young women are going through such things … and that gave me, like, 50 percent I was out of my pain, to see that I can get help from someone and my story can help someone else.” 
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Explore: 
Banksia Women 
If you or someone you know is experience domestic violence, please know that help is available. Here are just a few of the resources out there: 
If it’s an emergency, call the police on 000 (in Australia)
Call the National Domestic Violence line (1800 656 463) to be connected to a support service
Call Full Stop Australia (1800 385 578) or 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) to be connected to a support service, receive free anonymous counselling, or for information if you are supporting someone who is experiencing domestic violence  

Getting History Right

A smorgasbord of delights for both the history nerd and the history sceptic. 
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“I think people just arbitrarily impoverish their experience by the prejudice against the past.” 
Does history get you excited – or make your eyes glaze over? This episode of Life & Faith draws together morsels of insight, warning, and surprise from some superstar historians and thinkers who want to show you a different side to the past.  
Simon and Natasha discuss the question: if history were a person, what would your relationship to them be like? Marilynne Robinson urges us not to separate ourselves from the pain and error of those who’ve gone before, Alister McGrath challenges our flattened-out version of the past, Nick Spencer ponders the law of unintended consequences, and much more. Join us for a whirlwind tour of the pitfalls and pleasures of history! 
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Included in this episode: 
Marilynne Robinson, “On our prejudice against the past” 
Marilynne Robinson, “On original sin” 
Rodney Stark, “On judging the past” 
Alister McGrath, “On Christianity vs Darwinism” 
Sarah Coakley, “On an early escape hatch for women” 
Nick Spencer, “On popes and power” 
Robert Woodberry, “On the invisibility of missionaries” 
Robert Woodberry, “On what makes missionaries invisible” 
Catherine Brekus, “On how women keep churches going” 
Nick Spencer, “On historical amnesia” 
David Bentley Hart, “On modernity’s creation myth” 
David Bentley Hart, “On how Christianity revolutionised our world” 
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Check out more For the Love of God interviews  
Get tickets to CPX's 2022 Richard Johnson Lecture 

Staying Married

In honour of a special occasion, CPX distils 111 years’ worth of marriage experience into one episode. 
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Mawwiage is what bwings us togevver for this episode of Life & Faith! With nuptials rapidly approaching for one member of the team, Simon, Justine, and Natasha talk to the experts – and among themselves – about what it means to not just get married but stay that way.  
“You get married and then, sometime right after you get married, you wake up and you go, I have now committed to be with this person for life. And then your next reaction is … AHHHHHHH!! Don't be surprised if you have that reaction, it's a perfectly normal reaction. It’s just hit you, the commitment that you’ve made. And then rejoice in the potential of what you have.” 
Bible scholar Darrell Bock has been married to Sally for nearly half a century; psychologist Leisa Aitken has been counselling couples for 25 years. These friends of CPX weigh in on why marriage is so hard, and what can make it worthwhile.  
“I always think of the couples that have been married for 50 years and they have stuck it through hard times and easy times and they’ve been faithful and they’ve worked out how to bring the best out in each other. There is something profound and really special about that. And I think it’s profound and special because it does echo, it does resonate with something much bigger that’s going on in the universe.” 
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Explore: 
Relationships Australia   
Lisa Taddeo, “My Husband and I Don’t Speak the Same Love Language”
Get tickets to CPX's 2022 Richard Johnson Lecture 

REBROADCAST: An Astronomer’s Guide to the Galaxy

Astrophysicist Jennifer Wiseman on star-gazing, human significance, and the prospect of extra-terrestrial life.
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For Science Week we are rebroadcasting this chat with Jennifer Wiseman who joins us to speak about her journey to becoming an astrophysicist and how she resolved the ‘science and religion’ question.
Born and raised in rural Arkansas, Wiseman grew up gazing at the night sky and had a general love for nature. Eventually, that love for space became a full-time job, where her curiosity about the universe taught her plenty about the God she believed in.
“Science is a wonderful gift and tool to address certain types of questions. How does gravity work? How do stars form? What’s the evolutionary history of the universe?”
But beyond the general mechanisms of science, her curiosity goes further:
“But science is not really good at answering other types of questions like, why are we here, how I should live, can I have a relationship with God. These kinds of things I can’t measure with my microscope or my telescope.”
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Jennifer was in Australia speaking at the World Science Festival in Brisbane. Thanks to our friends at ISCAST – Christians in Science and Technology for arranging time with Jennifer.
Get tickets to CPX's 2022 Richard Johnson Lecture 

The Merry Philosopher

Esther Meek’s childhood questions led her on a decades-long philosophical journey to towards truth and "the really real”.  
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As a 13 year-old Esther Meek was plagued by her questions about what is real and what is truth. A quest to find answers led here towards the study of philosophy where she has spent decades developing her thinking around how we know what we know. Can we ever have confidence in that? 
Her passion is helping make philosophy accessible. We all qualify to be philosophers simply by being born, she likes to say.  
She reacts against the idea that knowledge is information and data and facts but much more complicated for embodied, spiritual, emotional and imaginative beings that we are.   
“There's one thing you need to be philosophical and that's to be born. And so then I feel that philosophy philosophizing should be done for everybody. And it should not just be, as I say, the rock musicians who do philosophy in the streets.”
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Explore:
Esther Meek’s books - Longing to Know; Loving to Know; and A Little Manual for Knowing 
Gospel Coalition Conference 
Bible Society Australia’s Bible Conference 
CPX’s 2022 Richard Johnson Lecture 

Ice and Isolation

Two years on an Antarctic research station taught Alex Gaffikin about iso long before lockdown. 
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When Alex Gaffikin was 22, she took a nine week voyage from South London, where she grew up, to the Halley Research Station on Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica. She ‘wintered’ there for two years as a meteorologist.  
In this interview, she gives us an insight into daily life on the south pole, the pressures and joys of living alongside other winterers, and her dark night of the soul experience during which she experienced a crisis of faith. 
Still, there were other consolations: like visiting a colony of emperor penguins, and waking up in the middle of the night to see the southern lights and the Milky Way with no light pollution nearby to obscure her glimpse of the galaxy.  
Listen in to what Alex experienced on Antarctica, and gain insight into what she learnt about isolation, long before lockdown, and the concrete difference it made for her to live out her faith by loving her neighbour.
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Explore: 
A short article giving us a further glimpse into Alex’s daily life on Antarctica

Asking Questions: Finding Answers

Darrell Bock talks about the things that pushed him, as a young man, to ask deep questions about life and meaning. And where he found answers.   
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Darrell Bock is a world-renowned Biblical scholar with a keen eye on the cultural water we swim in. He’s also an incurable sports fan.  
In this interview he talks to Simon Smart about the impact of losing his parents at a young age and where that took him in his search for meaning and purpose. Darrell discusses his life and career what what he thinks leads to lasting satisfaction. What is surprising about the Bible? What is its essential message? What does it have to say to a person in the 21st Century? 
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Explore: 
Some of Darrell’s books 
Cultural Intelligence: Living for God in a Diverse, Pluralistic World 
Studying the Historical Jesus 
How would Jesus vote? 
The Hendricks Center at Dallas Theological Seminary